From the great Ojiro Fumoto, and presented by Devolver Digital, we Netflix Subscribers™ are given the chance at playing yet again, an incredible mobile game.
DOWNWELL, the game Ojiro made before POINPY, is still my favorite mobile game of all time and because it's made by the same dev, I can't help but compare the two.
Even though they're different games, POINPY shares a lot of common DNA with DOWNWELL, with abilities, a vertical movement mechanic, baddies that give you an extra jump when killed, multiple zones, etc. The main difference is the progression system.
Unlike DOWNWELL, your progression is dependent on your total Juice Score, which gets added to a large pool of unlockables that make your attempts more bearable. Extra jumps, equipment slots, and golden seeds (currency) come from this, and they make the game vastly easier to help you feel closer and closer to victory as you complete recipes for the big blue monster that just wants its juice. The progression, I'll admit, takes a long time and feels artificially high so as to keep the player engaged with longer or more frequent bursts of playtime, but even still, I found myself enjoying it near the end (even though I still prefer the DOWNWELL way of doing things).
Abilities are no longer earned in between stages, but through unlocking equipment slots. You can "pin" abilities that you've unlocked from the slot machine as long as you have an open slot. There are some abilities that are absolutely broken even on their own (talking about you infinite spin), but that was fun to find out and experiment with to find my favorite synergies.
Once you've found your favorite synergy, it's possible you'll complete the game before you've maxed your rank out to 20, and at that point, your rank is maxed out to 20 whether you like it or not. This is a common thing in the end game... for example, one of the medals to get, is beating the game with 4 jump orbs. If you do that, it automatically unlocks "beat the game with 6/8/10 jump orbs." So what I'm getting at is, POINPY shoots itself in the foot when it comes to replayability.
It's the one thing the game doesn't have after you've gotten all the medals and obtained everything out of the vending machine. Replayability. Sure, I could keep it on my phone and open it up every once in a while but there wouldn't be a point. There's not a true "endless mode", and what I mean by that is, the endless mode you unlock when you beat the game for the first time is quite literal in the sense that it puts you in the game as an unkillable force, and you're just trying to get high juice scores. Your last 5 scores are averaged together. There's a few medals to be earned here, and getting those is challenging while it lasts. But I can't say I wasn't disappointed that there wasn't an endless mode where I could try to complete recipes for as long as possible to get the highest score I could for a shot at some kind of leaderboard position. I feel like it's squandered potential, because the average score thing, again, after you've earned all the medals, loses its purpose and pull.
The other thing that kills replayability for me is that there are no leaderboards! There isn't a worldwide leaderboard. You can't compare scores with other people hooked to your Netflix account. It doesn't even track your best scores so you can compete with yourself. There's nothing but the game. And POINPY is a fun game. But without some pull of a goal of any kind, there's nothing there for me to play anymore after 100%ing it... I still come back and play DOWNWELL because I feel it's truly infinitely replayable, even beyond obtaining all of the palates, and this is largely in part because of how it's designed, and because of its leaderboard inclusion. But I can't say that I can infinitely replay POINPY, and I'm kinda sad about that. Maybe this could change with a future update, but this is as it stands at the time of writing.
Don't get me wrong, I've loved just about every second while playing this game, when I've been playing it. I just wish there was something more. Heck, even a "100% medals" secret of some kind would have been nice and maybe made me want to come back. Maybe if the rank continued to increased for no reason other than "number go up". Maybe if there was a daily challenge to use a specific equipment set. Maybe there could be color palate changes like DOWNWELL to unlock. I don't know! But there really is nothing here anymore, but bragging rights on top of the fun memories.
I'd like to think this is intentional because of the fact that you have to sign up for Netflix to be able to play it. Maybe Ojiro wanted the game to have a definitive end so that gamers could subscribe temporarily to Netflix and play through the whole game before their subscription expired.
And really, that's one of my biggest criticisms, more so than replayability... I can't believe that this is only available through a hollow streaming service. What a terrible way to limit the amount of people that will get to play this game. And on Netflix of all services? The one that's been hemorrhaging content for years now and is only a husk of its former self? I can't believe what they charge for their meager selection. Can't believe I had to subscribe to Netflix as a fan of Ojiro just to play his new game. That's such a sucker punch to his entire fan base. I'm all for game devs following the money, but Netflix? Seriously?
All in all, if you have a Netflix subscription, playing POINPY is literally one of the best things you can do with it. But if you don't have a subscription, and POINPY is all you want to do on Netflix, it's just not worth the 15$ charge... I think (and hope) it's only a matter of time before it's released to the public, and then I think it would be a great time to pick it up. If POINPY was more replayable, or had more end game goals, I might think differently, but it is so hard to look past that premium price tag. Play more DOWNWELL. Maybe someone will figure out how to jailbreak it so you don't need Netflix. I don't know. I'm happy for Ojiro to get a huge pile of money from Devolver and Netflix, but I wish it didn't have to be this way. Fun game while it lasted though, lol.
DOWNWELL, the game Ojiro made before POINPY, is still my favorite mobile game of all time and because it's made by the same dev, I can't help but compare the two.
Even though they're different games, POINPY shares a lot of common DNA with DOWNWELL, with abilities, a vertical movement mechanic, baddies that give you an extra jump when killed, multiple zones, etc. The main difference is the progression system.
Unlike DOWNWELL, your progression is dependent on your total Juice Score, which gets added to a large pool of unlockables that make your attempts more bearable. Extra jumps, equipment slots, and golden seeds (currency) come from this, and they make the game vastly easier to help you feel closer and closer to victory as you complete recipes for the big blue monster that just wants its juice. The progression, I'll admit, takes a long time and feels artificially high so as to keep the player engaged with longer or more frequent bursts of playtime, but even still, I found myself enjoying it near the end (even though I still prefer the DOWNWELL way of doing things).
Abilities are no longer earned in between stages, but through unlocking equipment slots. You can "pin" abilities that you've unlocked from the slot machine as long as you have an open slot. There are some abilities that are absolutely broken even on their own (talking about you infinite spin), but that was fun to find out and experiment with to find my favorite synergies.
Once you've found your favorite synergy, it's possible you'll complete the game before you've maxed your rank out to 20, and at that point, your rank is maxed out to 20 whether you like it or not. This is a common thing in the end game... for example, one of the medals to get, is beating the game with 4 jump orbs. If you do that, it automatically unlocks "beat the game with 6/8/10 jump orbs." So what I'm getting at is, POINPY shoots itself in the foot when it comes to replayability.
It's the one thing the game doesn't have after you've gotten all the medals and obtained everything out of the vending machine. Replayability. Sure, I could keep it on my phone and open it up every once in a while but there wouldn't be a point. There's not a true "endless mode", and what I mean by that is, the endless mode you unlock when you beat the game for the first time is quite literal in the sense that it puts you in the game as an unkillable force, and you're just trying to get high juice scores. Your last 5 scores are averaged together. There's a few medals to be earned here, and getting those is challenging while it lasts. But I can't say I wasn't disappointed that there wasn't an endless mode where I could try to complete recipes for as long as possible to get the highest score I could for a shot at some kind of leaderboard position. I feel like it's squandered potential, because the average score thing, again, after you've earned all the medals, loses its purpose and pull.
The other thing that kills replayability for me is that there are no leaderboards! There isn't a worldwide leaderboard. You can't compare scores with other people hooked to your Netflix account. It doesn't even track your best scores so you can compete with yourself. There's nothing but the game. And POINPY is a fun game. But without some pull of a goal of any kind, there's nothing there for me to play anymore after 100%ing it... I still come back and play DOWNWELL because I feel it's truly infinitely replayable, even beyond obtaining all of the palates, and this is largely in part because of how it's designed, and because of its leaderboard inclusion. But I can't say that I can infinitely replay POINPY, and I'm kinda sad about that. Maybe this could change with a future update, but this is as it stands at the time of writing.
Don't get me wrong, I've loved just about every second while playing this game, when I've been playing it. I just wish there was something more. Heck, even a "100% medals" secret of some kind would have been nice and maybe made me want to come back. Maybe if the rank continued to increased for no reason other than "number go up". Maybe if there was a daily challenge to use a specific equipment set. Maybe there could be color palate changes like DOWNWELL to unlock. I don't know! But there really is nothing here anymore, but bragging rights on top of the fun memories.
I'd like to think this is intentional because of the fact that you have to sign up for Netflix to be able to play it. Maybe Ojiro wanted the game to have a definitive end so that gamers could subscribe temporarily to Netflix and play through the whole game before their subscription expired.
And really, that's one of my biggest criticisms, more so than replayability... I can't believe that this is only available through a hollow streaming service. What a terrible way to limit the amount of people that will get to play this game. And on Netflix of all services? The one that's been hemorrhaging content for years now and is only a husk of its former self? I can't believe what they charge for their meager selection. Can't believe I had to subscribe to Netflix as a fan of Ojiro just to play his new game. That's such a sucker punch to his entire fan base. I'm all for game devs following the money, but Netflix? Seriously?
All in all, if you have a Netflix subscription, playing POINPY is literally one of the best things you can do with it. But if you don't have a subscription, and POINPY is all you want to do on Netflix, it's just not worth the 15$ charge... I think (and hope) it's only a matter of time before it's released to the public, and then I think it would be a great time to pick it up. If POINPY was more replayable, or had more end game goals, I might think differently, but it is so hard to look past that premium price tag. Play more DOWNWELL. Maybe someone will figure out how to jailbreak it so you don't need Netflix. I don't know. I'm happy for Ojiro to get a huge pile of money from Devolver and Netflix, but I wish it didn't have to be this way. Fun game while it lasted though, lol.
Elephox
1 year ago